2001-06-11 - 1:01 p.m.
Our long national nightmare is over. Meaning Tim McVeigh is dead and the op-ed writers can quit wringing their hands already.
In general, I�m against the death penalty. It doesn�t deter crime, it�s irreversible, it brings out the worst in all of us (including liberals who take the opportunity to do backflips of moral relativism a la "By executing McVeigh we�re showing that we�re no better than he is," as if "we" have all been busy slaughtering government employees lately because The Turner Diaries told us to), and it gives George W. Bush this creepy self-satisfied look when he thinks about all the retarded black men he executed in Texas.
However. I�m also against having to share the planet with evil wastes of oxygen. So I�m conflicted.
The world, after all, would have been a much less irritating place these past 30 years if the state of California had actually executed Charles Manson like it had planned to do. But then the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the death penalty for a while, Charlie�s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and three decades of talk-show appearances, circuslike parole hearings, Guns �n Roses songs, and stupid middle-class teenagers wearing Manson T-shirts followed. Though at least we still have him to point to--along with Altamont and the Weather Underground--when old hippies get all gooey about the �60s, so I guess having him around is still worth the trouble. The only service Tim McVeigh would have provided in prison is of the oral variety, so he and us are all probably better off with him dead.
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Busy, busy weekend. Will report tomorrow.
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